


Introspection

by solisaureus



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Endgame, Established Relationship, Happy Ending, M/M, Resurrection, Same-Sex Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-08-12 01:06:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7914427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solisaureus/pseuds/solisaureus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Robin meets his other self in the afterlife and then returns to where he's meant to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Introspection

Now, as one!" shouted the prince to his companion. A holy blade, brilliant as the dawn, shone in his grasp. It pulsed as if alive, as if begging to be put to its sacred purpose. Below him, a dragon sputtered on the edge of death.

The man next to him was still as a hunted animal. His eyes were dark, unreflective, tired. A worn tome hung in one hand at his side; a silver dagger dripped with the dragon's mortal blood in his other. 

The prince turned to him by the slightest degree. Said his name, gently, urgently. Nearly reached a bloodied hand to him. 

Robin snapped his gaze to him, and in the space of a heartbeat he plunged the dagger into his own abdomen. Fell to his knees as the dragon shrieked. The holy blade fell from Chrom's hold and clattered ungracefully to the scaly ground. In the next breath he was in the prince's arms, cradled against his chest like a child. 

"You promised," Chrom said, his voice wet with tears. "You promised me we would find another way." But it was grief, not betrayal, that broke him now. 

Blood dripped from Robin's lips as he spoke. "I lied," he said. "I'm sorry." 

The agonized sounds of the dying dragon filled the few moments as they looked into each other's weary faces. Robin spasmed in the prince's arms as blood poured from his wound. There was so much of it, it seemed like it would never stop. 

"I don't want to live without you," Chom said, finally. 

Robin reached a shaking hand to his cheek, wiped a tear with his thumb. "But you will," he whispered, the blood in his throat obscuring his voice. 

The weak touch caused the prince to tremble as if he'd been struck. "I swear I will search for you. I'll find you, if it takes me the rest of my days," he said. 

The corners of Robin's lips pulled themselves up, but his eyes did not change. "Tell the others...my last thoughts were of them." 

Chrom tightened his hold on Robin's body, as if he could bar death itself if he was strong enough. "Stay with me," he said, his voice barely audible. Behind him, the dragon was still. 

"Chrom," Robin said, almost sternly. The prince gazed down at him, drinking up these last few moments of life. "May we meet again...in a better life...." 

The hand on the prince's cheek fell. 

Chrom's bereaved cry was silenced as his vision filled with divine light. His body felt weightless, and then he was gone, kneeling in the sand empty-handed. The dragon was gone, as if it were simply a passing nightmare. And the body in his arms was gone, with only the blood on his clothes to remember him by. 

\--

It was dark, or he could not see. He felt nothing below or around him. His thoughts, a furious beehive only moments ago, were now a placid watery mirror. _Death,_ he knew. 

A furious roar sounded from no place in particular. The fell dragon was here too, protesting the unfairness of peace. He felt that it was not his place to be here amongst mortal souls for eternity, and some part of Robin agreed. Grima was a god. Robin had slain a god. 

There was a third presence, so weak that Robin could have easily missed it in the shadow of Grima's rage. It was a human soul, and it glowed faintly. Robin found himself drawn to the light. Upon approach, he saw a body that looked like his, hair grown and loose, long eyelashes touching dark cheeks. It looked so much like himself, but older, more gaunt, with different scars. He had seen this body before. It dawned on him as the stranger slowly opened his eyes and looked at him. 

"Grima," Robin said evenly, almost accused. 

The stranger looked puzzled for a moment, then looked down at his hands, touched his hair. "No...not anymore," he said, and his voice carried a breath of hope that had no place in the afterlife. "You freed me. Thank you." 

Robin swallowed. He was slightly disconcerted by the relieved peace in the mirror of his own face. He looked so unsettlingly content. "I killed you," he corrected. 

The stranger's face fell. "You killed yourself."

"I had to."

"That's not true. Why did you not let him do it? Why did you give up your life?" 

Robin looked down. "I have some of your memories, you know." 

The stranger paused, surprised by the change in topic. "I know."

"Then how could you ask me that? How could you allow the horrors of Grima to descend on any people, no matter how distant?" 

The stranger set his gaze, then sighed. "You're right. Of course I would have done the same thing. It's just that..."

"What?"

"He loved you, didn't he?" 

Robin glanced at the ring on his left hand. "Yes, he did."

The stranger smiled sadly. "I just wish that you had lived happily. That at least one of us had. I know it's selfish, but after everything...I've already seen one world end."

Robin was quiet, unsure what to say. The darkness around him seemed to shift to feel more comforting than ominous. After a moment he said, "When you - or, Grima, I don't know - revealed who he was, I...I was shaken. I lost all faith in myself and tried to convince Chrom and the others to abandon me, because I thought that you were a traitor, and by extension so was I. But Chrom never bought any of that. He told me that you were a good man trapped inside a monster, and I know he believed so until the very end." 

The stranger wiped his misting eyes with the heel of his hand and laughed softly. "That does sound like him," he said. 

"The Chrom of your time," Robin began, a little hesitant. "He forgave you. He said it wasn't your fault." Chrom's final words stayed in Robin's mind like a scar; the look in his eyes as he gave in to death had kept him up at night ever since he started receiving visions of foreign memories.

The stranger looked at the ground, but his expression was still fond. "He was a fool." 

"I'm going to miss him." 

"Me too." 

They fell into a gentle quietude then, save for Grima's incessant lament in the background. Then the the darkness changed again, and Robin felt a breeze through his hair and fingers and almost swore he could smell grass and wildflowers. A golden glow surrounded him, and the image of his other self faded from sight.

"Fell blood," called a voice that sounded like a rose blooming. 

"I am here," Robin responded, and it was both an answer and a conviction.

A tall figure appeared in his view, almost as though she materialized from pure light. She wore loose garments that looked like they could have been made from flowing water, and her hair, the color of a bud about to blossom, fluttered and glided on the breeze. "My Exalt is searching for you," said Naga.

Robin was quiet, remembering what Chrom had said to him before he left him. He never did break a promise.

"Speak your heart. Do you wish to be with them once more?"

"The dead do not rise again," Robin said. The Exalt should have learned this. 

Naga's eyes glittered on the surface, but they looked deep, almost endless. "Some fates are too cruel," she said simply. 

Robin thought of his other self, how he had thanked him for ending his life. The relief on his face when he realized he was dead. "If...if you really are offering a second chance at my life, then I..." Robin looked at the divine dragon, and then bowed his head. "I would be grateful beyond words."

Naga closed her eyes and a faint smile crossed her lips. "Very well."

Bones, muscles, flesh pulled at Robin's soul, elongating into arms, legs, a head. His vision of the goddess narrowed and then disappeared, and suddenly breath returned to Robin's lungs. He became aware that he was laying down, and that grass itched at his bare skin. Sunlight filtered through the pink web of his eyelids.

"Gods!" 

He opened his eyes. Above him was the awestruck face of Frederick, and beside him, his wife. The woman disappeared briefly, and returned with a spare cloak, which she quickly wrapped around Robin's unclothed body. The knight offered his hand. 

"Welcome back," Frederick said as he pulled his friend to his feet and embraced him, a rare tear in his eye. "It's over now."

\--

Frederick knocked on the doors to his lord's office. Cherche, also a knight, had retrieved more suitable clothing for Robin after she'd flown him back to the castle on her wyvern. Frederick had ridden back on his horse, and he stood now with the newly bathed and clothed Robin outside the room where the Exalt sat studying political documents. 

"Milord, you have a visitor," Frederick announced, trying to sound casual.

"Is it the ambassador from Plegia? She must have arrived early." The familiar voice, muffled through the door, struck Robin where he stood. With delight or nerves, he could not tell which. 

"It is not her."

"Who, then?"

"This visitor is heretofore unannounced." 

A pause, while Chrom was likely sighing with exasperation. "Well, send them in." 

Frederick turned the gilded handle, and looked at Robin as he swung the door open. Robin smiled at him, and strode into the bright room where the exalt sat at his desk, waiting. 

Chrom's breath stopped when he saw him, new, pure, living. He stood slowly, a name on his lips. 

"Hello, Chrom," said Robin, his voice only quivering a little bit. His husband looked different, wearing his hair slightly longer and sleeves on both his arms. A crown unlike Emmeryn's, meant to be worn across the forehead, sat untouched on the desk. He never did like adornments. 

"Are you...is this..." Chrom stuttered as he rounded his desk, not taking his eyes from that face even to blink.

Slowly, almost hesitantly, he grasped Robin's hand, and it was miraculously, blessedly warm. His eyes burned with tears. _Real._

In a flash of a moment they wrapped each other up, pressing their hearts as close as they could. Chrom buried his nose in that smooth brown hair, breathing in his familiar scent mixed with that of the soap used by the castle's servants. He wept as his arms tightened around Robin, letting out a sob when he felt the hold around his own body tighten in response. 

"Chrom - I can't breathe," Robin wheezed quietly after a moment. The Exalt reluctantly slackened his embrace, smiling sheepishly as he rested his forehead on Robin's. Robin laughed lightly, and it was a sound like daybreak. 

"I-I'm sorry, I..." he sighed, stroking Robin's cheek with his thumb. "I have missed you." 

"I've missed you too," Robin whispered. "Frederick told me that it - it has been a year. I had no idea." It seemed that he'd only been dead for an instant. 

"I never stopped searching for you, Robin. All this time I have remained yours." Robin looked into his eyes and knew that he meant it.

Robin smiled and leaned in to kiss his husband. "It feels good to be back."

**Author's Note:**

> One of Robin's comments to Future Robin is referencing one of my other fics ("Unworthy") :P I really just wanted to write these two talking to each other, plus it's been a while since I've written happy chrobin so here's that


End file.
